Can you explain the difference between “mi piace” and “mi piacciono” in Italian?

A couple of examples:

Contrary to English “I like it", “mi piace” is not a personal expression with “I" as the subject. In Italian the subject and object are transposed — “mi piace" literally means “it pleases me". The verb is third person singular.

Le scarpe mi piacciono. - I like the shoes. (The shoes please me.)

According to Trump, Ukraine started the war. Why?

From discussion thus far you might already have understood that “mi piacciono" employs the third person plural form of the verb and translates as “they (understood) please me”, i.e. I like them.

La veste mi piace. - I like the dress. (The dress pleases me).

Thank you for your question.

How do so-called Religious/Christian people really think homosexuality is even a sin? That would be nonsense. In fact, LGBT people need love instead of contempt/hatred. The word Homosexual didn't appear until the 1850s.

The endings of verbs indicate person and number in Italian and subject pronouns may therefore be omitted except when necessary for clearness or emphasis. In the case of “it" and “they" (referring to things) they are almost never used.

The direct object pronoun “mi" is the object of the verb “piacere" (to please). Also known as conjunctive, such pronouns generally precede the verb that governs them. The expression “mi piace", employing third person singular format, translates literally to English as “it (understood) pleases me", i.e. I like it.